Stout and Cheddar Meatloaf

We went shopping at the Urbandale Hy-vee because we went and saw a movie before hand.  In wandering through their beer selection, I was unable to find a stout that I wanted to use, so I ended up going to the Hy-Vee drug close to our house to get some Kalamazoo Stout.  I then, before I checked on how much cheddar was in there, I picked up a whole pound of Prairie Breeze.  Even when I used quite a bit more of the cheese then asked for.  This was pretty good, the stout came through, but not too strong to make it unpalatable to Shannon.  But the cheese didn't seem like it added too much to it.  I also swapped out the beef and veal in the recipe for pork.  Good stuffs.  (and I got to have meat loaf sandwiches)

Spicy Soba Noodle Salad with Thai-Style peanut dressing

I made this on Monday, before i headed out to see RBF, I used Thin Whole Wheat spaghetti (didn't have a real chance to go find Soba noodles).  But it was really good.  I would made this again, and considering it is relatively easy to do, it wouldn't be a bad thing to do.

Sear Roasted Salmon Fillets with Lemon Ginger Butter

Kept forgetting to take the fish out, then it ended as Saturday and I wasn't there to cook dinner.  Delayed until sometime this week (if I can remember to take the fish out).

Curried Chicken Salad

So I forgot to buy wraps, I had a bit of an accident and blueberries ended up all over the floor, Shannon was nice enough to clean them up while I was recovering (long day, me taking offense at something that may or may not be the intention).  Anyways, it turned out good, was pretty good on bread.

Chorizo and Scrambled Eggs

So the point of this was to figure out what kind of chorizo it was and how it tasted.  So it's not like the Spanish style chorizo (exudes magical red liquid that is super flavorful) and not quite the Mexican style of Chorizo (a lot finer of a grind, a bit spicier).  But somewhat like an americanized version of it.  I know that between Crooked Gap and Story City Locker they are trying to find what they both like and want to put forward to both of their customers.  I can use this, but depending on the purpose I may have to spice it up a bit (or not).

Pork Chops & Mashed potatoes

One of the inherent problems with buying local meats, is the less than stellar processing from some of the smaller shops.  Normally they don't have to be consistently good, because you have to travel much further to get something processed into the individual parts.  But when you run across someone that actually tries to do a good job, you are often shocked and surprised.  I've had high hopes for Story City Locker, and this has proved how much this was needed.  The pork chops were almost exactly the same (one was a bit of bone, and the two chops were slightly uneven in thickness (if we go super anal retentive)), and they cooked up in almost the same time frame.

If we think about some of the other meat cuts we've gotten from other lockers, there is clearly an inconsistency.  Anyways, I was very happy with how, not only did the pork chops turn out, but the way they were cut.  Sometimes I have have a 3+ minute difference in the cook time because of inconsistency.  That's not cool.

Anyways, this turned out great.  with a side of mashed potatoes (that I may have used a bit too much garlic in) and some baby spinach (please farmers market and spring come, this packaged stuff pales in comparison).  In an effort to encourage more vegetable eating, we've started to bring home these Bolthouse Farms dressings, which are tasty and much lower in calories per teaspoon.  We've tried a couple and the only one we've not liked is the Cilantro Avocado (way too much cilantro, not enough avocado).  Though it does make me sad(ish) to find out it's owned by Campbells, though not to surprised.